Happy New Year

I can't believe the last day of the year is here! Where did this whole year go? Well, here is hoping next year will be healthy and just plain ordinary! I can live with that, no bad surprises, no health problems, Phil's tests will all be normal and we can go on vacation without worries :) All our friends and family will be fine, their problems will be in the past, good health to all of them too! That is my wish for the coming year!
We don't really have any plans for today. The kids are looking forward to staying up late and getting their special drink tonight ( a drop of champagne in orange juice, the glass edges dipped in juice and sugar to coat them. They think it's the coolest thing! Plus I still have some old Bleigiessen stuff, we might dig that out and do it over again :). For those of you who don't know it, it's a german tradition. You have these little lead (very lightweight) figurines that are being placed on a spoon and heated over a candle until liquid. You then dump the content very rapidly into a bowl of cold water and they take on these weird shapes. You are then supposed to look up the shape in a booklet provided to see what good luck is being promised with it. It's just fun to dump the stuff and see what happens!

I just finished my Shutterfly book about Advent, I had a coupon and it expired tonight, so I just made it. It came out cute I think. Here is the link if you want to take a peek

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDJgwbOGDdswbAbVkwWO

That's pretty much all I have been working on these last past days, so I have no new pages to show you (I am sure you are crying right now :))
The kids and I met my friends from Altoona at the Mall yesterday (waving). We had lunch together and did some shopping. It was so good to see them, albeit a little chaotic with all the kids in tow, plus it gets so hot now, wearing a coat to the mall is no fun and then carrying bags on top of that is almost too much! We will have to get together and do nothing some other day, so that we'll have some time to chat and not play hangman with the kids :) (not that that wasn't fun)
I also talked to my brother yesterday. It's always nice to get an update from Germany, I talked to my sister Barbara the day after my birthday also, I hadn't heard from her in so long, it was really nice. So in the last week or so I have spoken to all of them, cause I called Edith and got to talk to Brita too. yeah! I still have family. Sometimes I feel sad for the kids. They seem to miss having cousins around here like all of their classmates do. Not much I can do about that.
Well, I am leaving you with good wishes for the NewYear, stay healthy and my resolution for the New Year is to keep my blog more up-to-date :)